Pretty Little Pirates
by Gilles Estram
Summary: Never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret. And never trust a pirate.
1. Liberty of the Seas

Chapter 1

**Liberty of the Seas**

Spencer Hastings was vacantly stirring her cup of latte as she watched yet another hot muscular surfer boy walk past the window of the Windjammer Café on his way back from the FlowRider surf simulator on Deck Thirteen. She had a feeling she should feel guilty about checking other guys out given that things were serious between her and Toby, but he was still back in Rosewood and she had nothing better to do right now. She had been nursing this cup of latte for almost a whole hour. This cruise felt much more like an overly-long lazy summer afternoon than a school trip. But even though she saw no academic worth in spending five days on the _Liberty_, Spencer could not complain. The cool sea air helped take her mind off all the troubles back in Rosewood. She still remembered Melissa's pained scream from the barn where Ian had killed himself, but it was barely louder than a whisper now, having been drowned out by the constant sounds of the waves crashing against the side of the ship. She needed this experience. It was calming.

"Hey," Spencer heard a familiar voice from behind her say, "mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," she turned to face a smiling Aria Montgomery, "but what if your mum catches us?"

The girls had been quietly ecstatic when Mr Fitz had announced a class trip to the Caribbean because it was a perfect opportunity for them to hang out together without their parents knowing. Everything changed, however, when Mrs Montgomery took over from her daughter's secret boyfriend as their English teacher. The girls had to limit their meetings even more now that they were practically imprisoned with a watchful parent in a much smaller space than Rosewood. Aria's mum had become more and more suspicious of their behaviour ever since the incidence with their therapist Dr Sullivan's office.

"Don't worry," Aria moved to sit down in the opposite chair, "she's preparing some class activities for tonight so we have a little time to ourselves. Oh look, here they are!"

Spencer turned to see her other friends Hanna Marin and Emily Fields approach the table.

"I got your text," Hanna began to say as they got seated in the remaining two chairs around the table, "almost thought it was from…"

"That's just it!" Aria said. "It's been a week and we haven't heard from A. No texts, no notes, no letters, no song dedications, nothing. You know what that means."

"Aria, we've already talked about this," Emily crossed her arms wearily. "Ian couldn't have been A."

"Back in the bell tower," Spencer reminded her, "A saved me from Ian."

"Still," Aria insisted, "now that Ian's gone and the police got the confession letter, maybe A's decided to leave us alone."

"I don't know," Hanna said vacillatingly, "a part of me wants to believe that's true, but I still think A's not done toying with us yet."

"Well, I'm hungry," Aria changed the subject, "wanna go grab a sandwich from the counter?"

"You guys go ahead," Spencer said, "I've already eaten."

As Spencer watched the three girls walk over to the buffet counter, the _Liberty_ rocked suddenly and violently. Her cup of latte went flying off the table and the remaining stale coffee landed on her beige jacket. Seconds after the cup had collided with the varnished floor and shattered into a dozen pieces, all was calm again. Spencer slowly stood up and looked over at her friends, all of whom were wearing shocked expressions.

"What the hell was that?" Emily asked apprehensively.

"Oh, Spencer," Hanna exclaimed, "your jacket!"

"It's okay, guys," Spencer smiled reassuringly, "I'm sure it was nothing. I'll just go to the bathroom to clean up."

As Spencer turned to walk away, she could hear Aria say to the others, "We'd better leave, too. My mum's gonna be checking on us after that."


	2. The Scarlet Letter

Chapter 2

**The Scarlet Letter**

Spencer grabbed a napkin from the table and began dabbing at the coffee stain on her jacket as she hurried to the washroom. So much of her attention was directed at the futile attempt to get the blots out that she completely failed to notice a sign on the washroom door that might have deterred her from pushing through it.

She hastily turned on the faucet and wetted a corner of the napkin before dabbing again at the now-settling stain. It did not seem to work. She exhaled exasperatedly, realising that the only way to remove the horrid stain now would be several cycles with high-grade detergent which would very likely damage the fabric beyond repair. She threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes in defeat. Then, as Spencer turned off the faucet, she heard it, a barely audible singing voice emanating from one of the stalls, which had been drowned out by the sound of running water a moment ago.

_Better lock it in your pocket, taking this one to the grave…_

Nervously she took a step towards the source of the music. It was the very last stall next to the wall. The door was partially closed but not locked.

"Hello?" Spencer called loudly as she continued to approach the stall. "Is anybody there?"

The only answer that came was more music.

_If I show you then I know you won't tell what I said…_

Laying a trembling hand on the door, she pushed it open and let out a piercing scream. Lying sprawled across the toilet seat was the twisted and lifeless body of Mrs Montgomery, holding in her hand an iPod that obnoxiously continued to play the song. Spencer ran.

'_Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead._

When she pulled the washroom door open to escape, all the colour drained from her cheeks as she saw what she should have seen coming in. Drawn in Jungle Red lipstick across the ivory door was a colossal letter A.

"Help! Help!" she screamed loudly as she sprinted from the Windjammer Café, casting her eyes wildly looking for someone, anyone, who could help. But there was nobody to be found. She could not see her friends or security guards or waiters or even hot muscular surfer boys as she raced through Deck Twelve. Where was everybody?

As she turned a sharp corner towards the stairs down to Deck Eleven, she crashed into someone and fell backward flat on her back. The other person walked forward and bent over to look at her. He was a short greasy man dressed in raggedy clothes that looked like they had never been acquainted with the washing machine. She could smell his foul breath as he grinned at her, baring his rotting teeth.

"'Ello, Poppet," he said in a hoarse voice.


	3. Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

Chapter 3

**Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum**

Spencer's vision was blurred with tears. She could just see the other three liars standing huddled together among a noisy crowd. She could see Aria's face, scared and confused, if slightly indignant. Spencer wanted to go to her, to tell her of her mother's fate, to hold her tight in her arms and be the shoulder she cried on. But she couldn't. The short greasy man in the raggedy clothes still maintained a grimy grip on her elbow as he led her forcefully through the crowd. He was a lot stronger than she'd expected and the shock of discovering Mrs Montgomery's dead body had left her too weak to struggle.

She wiped away her tears with her free arm. She could see then that virtually everybody aboard the _Liberty_ was gathered there in the Conference Centre. She wondered if A was there as well, and the thought sent shivers down her spine. The furniture had all been either thrown into the corners or smashed to pieces, except for table which was placed in the middle of the gathered crowd, upon which a man stood proudly. Spencer did not recognise him. He was wearing clothes similar to those of the short greasy man, with the addition of a leather tricorne worn over the top of his long braided hair. His goatee, which was also braided, gave him an appearance of utmost untrustworthiness.

Spencer rather doubted that this was part of the cruise's entertainment programme. Most of the people in the room were just as bewildered as she was and made it quite clear in their protestations that they did not want to be there. So why had they all been coerced into this horribly chaotic situation? Where were the captain and the crew? And why were these unpleasantly aggressive people, who had had them surrounded, in pirate fancy dress? Most importantly, though, where was A? Surely whatever this kerfuffle was all about, it should certainly stop, now that there was a murderer among them.

As she was led towards the man on the table, he bent down to her eye level and looked at her slyly.

"Mr Pintel," he said to the short greasy man, "I hope you haven't been mistreating this ravishing beauty."

Spencer did not know whether to be flattered or to be absolutely terrified by this comment.

"I found her," the greasy man replied, "tryin' to run away, Cap'n."

"You're the captain?" Spencer asked, surprised.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," the man removed his hat and bowed his head slightly, "at your service."

"Well, Captain Sparrow," Spencer finally wriggled free as Pintel had loosened his grip, "I think you ought to know that—"

But her tears were welling up again as the image of Aria's mum's lifeless figure sprawled across the toilet seat flashed across her mind. She began to sob and could not finish telling him.

"See, Mr Pintel," said Jack Sparrow casually to his crewman, "another girl breaks down at the sheer sight of my stunning good looks," and then to Spencer, "there, there, you still have a chance with me. I'm all about giving chances."

Spencer was disgusted. A horrible murder had happened on the ship and the captain was teasing her! She tried to swallow the tears and spoke in a broken voice, "Mrs Montgomery, she's—dead. Her killer's still—around here somewhere. Please—help us."

Captain Jack Sparrow leaned towards her, until his nose was barely an inch from her face, and grinned to show his various gold teeth, "Sorry, dear, but I'm only here for the rum." Then he drew a flintlock pistol from his belt and fired a shot into the ceiling. There were several short high-pitched screams and then the crowd went silent.

"Now that we have order," he said loudly, "Mr Gibbs, bring me my compass."


End file.
